Saturday - Ezekiel 8 - A Strange Trip to God's House

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ERE it is recorded that (in a vision) Ezekiel went on a from his house in Babylon all the way to God's house in Jerusalem.  And, talking about strange, he was taken there by the hair of his head. And, just as Ezekiel had seen the glory of God earlier (Ezekiel 1), here he saw it again (Ezekiel 8:2 & 4). In this instance he also saw some things that were much less glorious. Mainly, he saw the sins of the Jews as they were performed openly at the temple. In the very temple of Jehovah, Ezekiel found idolatry. He found it there because God showed it to him. He found it there because it really was there. He found it there because God had a mission for him: he was going to condemn such nonsense.

Not only did God pick Ezekiel up by the hair, He also sent him into the temple through a hole in the wall. Inside God's holy house (which was no longer holy), Ezekiel found the walls covered with images of the very creatures that the Jews had been commanded never to eat, much less paint, carve or worship (Deuteronomy 5:7-9). The vision continued though.  The 70 elders of Israel were in Ezekiel's vision. They were worshipping these images (Ezekiel 8:11). Jewish women were in Ezekiel's vision. They were weeping in some strange pantheistic ritual (Ezekiel 8:14). There were others in Ezekiel's vision who had their backs to the temple as they worshiped the sun (compare Ezekiel 8:16 to Deuteronomy 4:19).  And in all of this, there was no shame in them. If their sin was bad, their attitude about it was worse.  So, they were doomed.